1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an inspecting apparatus for a semiconductor device, and more specifically, to an inspecting apparatus that minimizes the number of semiconductor devices damaged due to faulty temperature measurements during heat durability testing.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a handler device includes a handler to identify defective semiconductor devices, and a testing chamber to test the durability of semiconductor devices at elevated temperatures. The testing chamber plays an important role in improving the effectiveness of temperature testing of semiconductor devices.
A core technology of the testing chamber is a heating/cooling technology that maintains a constant temperature during testing, regardless of heat radiated from the semiconductor device. The heating/cooling technology is divided into two main methods, a direct cooling method that involves spraying air on the semiconductor device, and an indirect cooling method that involves installing a radiation fin on the semiconductor device and spraying the air on the radiation fin.
Most conventional inspecting apparatuses for semiconductor devices that use the indirect cooling method, are configured to place a heat sink directly on the semiconductor device to transfer the heat from the semiconductor device. Others use additional heat transfer means to transfer the heat from the semiconductor device to the heat sink during the heat durability testing.
When the heat sink is in direct contact with the semiconductor device, the contacting surfaces of the heat sink and the semiconductor device are difficult to align in parallel due to irregularities of the match plates and/or the roughness of the contacting surface of the semiconductor device. As a result, this structural problem prevents an efficient transfer of the heat from the semiconductor device to the heat sink.
Consequently, some of the heat is transferred to the air layer between the contacting surfaces of the heat sink and the semiconductor device, causing an increase in the temperature of the testing chamber. The increase in the temperature of the testing chamber causes the inspecting apparatus to misidentify a qualified semiconductor device as a defective semiconductor device. This misidentification occurs because the temperature of the semiconductor device is measured above the actual temperature of the semiconductor device due to the heat transfer. Therefore, the reliability of the durability testing is lowered. Additionally, physical contact between heat sinks and semiconductor devices frequently damage the semiconductor devices.
While inspecting apparatuses designed to transfer the heat from semiconductor devices to the heat sinks using additional heat transfer means exist, such devices not only require complex transfer structures, such as radiation members, but also are inefficient at transferring heat due to the minimal area of contact between the radiation members and the semiconductor devices.
The physical connections between the radiation members and the heat sinks have alignment problems similar to those described above. Also, the heat transferring efficiency and the misidentification rate of semiconductor devices remain at unacceptable levels.